Mushroom Lord in the Underground City-Chapter 292 - 284: Mushroom Town

Five-layer Mushroom Forest.

"Dylan, are you sure... this is really okay?" Norris was a bit nervous.

He instinctively moved his shoulders; wearing a shirt after a long time made him feel extremely awkward.

At this moment, Norris had no scales, no claws – just leather armor, looking like a real human adventurer.

In fact, thanks to eating well and frequent combat training, he looked much stronger than when he used to mine.

However, it was his first time completely disguised as a human, going to the surface, and he truly felt insecure.

Standing in front of him, Dylan appeared calm and at ease, even leisurely checking his weapon straps.

"What are you worried about?" he glanced at Norris, "With a level seven mimicry, it won’t reveal unless you’re beaten to a pulp. Back in the day, I ran around the Archipelago with a low-grade one that got exposed easily upon injury. This time we’re just strolling around our own Underground City, very safe!"

Dylan’s experienced words slightly eased Norris’s tense nerves.

"But," Dylan changed the subject and nodded at Norris’s head with a hint of a smile, "Are you sure... you want to go out looking like this?"

Norris knew what Dylan meant. Thanks to the boss, his hair was now waist-length!

Although his rugged features wouldn’t likely lead to being mistaken for a woman, it was rare to see male human adventurers with such exaggeratedly long hair.

"It’s... what the boss demanded." Norris sighed helplessly, full of resignation.

As soon as he finished speaking, two Puki stacked like a tower, "popping" their way behind Norris.

One extended its tentacle and clumsily twisted his long hair into a somewhat messy bun.

Then, it fetched an inconspicuous little twig from some corner and "click" inserted it in the center of the bun to secure it.

Having done this, the Puki patted Norris on the shoulder with its tentacle: "Kid, you’re too young to understand! This is the hairstyle of a real man! Trust me, you won’t go wrong!"

Silently, Dylan swallowed the words "I don’t get it either".

From his experience, giving any opinion at this time could lead to trouble.

Once they were ready, the two arrived at the stone wall next to the Mushroom Forest, where the hidden room had long been waiting.

...

On the surface, Dylan boldly stepped out of the gate of the Underground City, while Norris, behind him, appeared somewhat restrained.

However, the moment they exited, they both instinctively shielded their eyes.

Such dazzling sunlight... they hadn’t seen in so long.

The Underground City only had Glowing Mushrooms, not to mention that even in the Far North, the sunlight was dim and foggy, nothing like here.

It took them a while to get used to it.

Dylan’s backpack was filled with gold coins, even prepared with an A Level Demon Crystal, ready to exchange for money if necessary.

Their goal was to head to the Adventurer’s Guild to issue some tasks.

With the study of magic potions, some needed materials were unavailable in both of the underground cities.

Not necessarily rare, just not grown due to unsuitable environments.

The simplest way is to go to the Guild and publish procurement tasks, and naturally, caravans will pick them up and bring what’s needed.

The procurement of alchemy ingredients was just part of it; with so many gold coins, the biggest spending was to bounty hunt demons with [Negative Energy Collection] in the Scarecrow Abyss.

After all, they’re the most powerful beasts in the deepest layers, not to mention the inherent danger level of the Scarecrow Abyss, so the bounty must be high.

First offer five hundred gold coins, and if no one takes it, they can increase the offer later.

Lin Jun’s cash was nearly used up, and all that was left were high-value Advanced Demon Crystals, which were valuable but inconvenient to liquidate in large amounts.

They needed to find a channel and sell them bit by bit.

Leaving the bounty to Edin or Inanna was feasible too, but the many eyes on them made inconspicuous Dylan a better candidate to avoid attention.

As for Norris, bringing him out for some fresh air and to get familiar with the disguise.

However, as they truly stepped out of the Underground City, both were stunned by what lay before them.

The town had been expanded significantly, reducing the distance from the Underground City to the town by half!

The central building in town was still the original wooden house, but the new extension outside it consisted entirely of stone houses.

Moreover, most importantly, the population had not only increased, but its composition had drastically changed.

The former Dumb Wind Town was a small town centered around adventurers, with taverns, inns, and shops catering primarily to adventurers.

Now, however, the prevalent presence of civilians significantly diluted the adventurer ratio, almost as if the roles were reversed.

Even more bafflingly, amidst the crowd, the occasional appearance of a Puki didn’t surprise anyone!

Beyond the town, fields of mushroom farms stretched out as far as the eye could see, with countless mushroom farmers hard at work.

Some carried water buckets to sprinkle water, while others transported demon corpses in carts for fertilization.

Further afar, figures were seen felling forests.

No forest was excessively dry, nor was one too dense to block sunlight, while sparse forests were just right.

Before new mushroom fields were cultivated, unnecessary trees had to be cut down.

Dylan gaped in astonishment; during his last trip back to the Underground City, refugees were still residing in makeshift camps – the transformation, in the blink of an eye, was incredible.

Norris, on the other hand, wondered if he had crossed through some kind of rift again...

"Senior, is this... still Dumb Wind Town?"

A drunk passerby overheard and halted, taking a few steps back to place a hand on Norris’s shoulder.

"Kid, just got here from out of town, right? Dumb Wind Town? Who still uses that name now?"

The drunk burped before continuing: "This place is now called Mushroom Town! Soon it’ll even turn into Mushroom City! If you’re not short on cash, make sure to try our specialty, delicious creamy mushroom soup! You can’t get it this fresh and authentic anywhere else!"

The drunk, proud of his introduction, walked away wobbly, not caring if Norris responded or not, giving him a pat on the shoulder before leaving.

Not long after, he tripped on his own feet, stumbling a bit, then falling on the ground.

Yet he wasn’t hurt.

Under him, a flattened Puki had cushioned his fall entirely.

Passersby paused, and murmurs rose from around them.

"Uh-oh, tonight he’ll be haunted by Puki."

"Serves him right for liking to drink and roam the streets."

Even the drunk himself panicked, sobering up halfway instantly: "I... I didn’t mean it! Wait, there’s still time to make an offering!"

The drunk scrambled up and hurriedly stumbled toward the newly delineated demon corpses market for offerings.